A variety of hitch assemblies for securing trailers to vehicles are known. One such assembly includes a bottom action jaw design having a spring-loaded arm configured to grasp a bail or tongue of a trailer from the bottom.
Issues arise with such bottom action jaws when the spring loses its resilience and/or when the device is subjected to sudden jars such as are common from bumps along the path of travel. For example, because the spring biases the arm upward, loss of spring resiliency or bounce from a bump may cause the arm to drop out of the jaw thereby allowing disengagement of the tongue and a connected trailer(s). Such occurrences can lead to undesirable and potentially harmful situations.
Another issue arises with such hitch assemblies in that they can be difficult to disengage from an engaged tongue. Often, the release mechanism must be forced upward or sideways to release the jaw from the tongue, and therefore, does not allow an operator to ergonomically or advantageously use his/her body weight to disengage the hitch from the tongue.
As such, there is a desire for an automatic hitch assembly having an improved jaw design and a release mechanism configured to facilitate easy release of the hitch from the trailer tongue.